Impressive but honestly I am more impressed by the quality of handwriting at that time. The penmanship appears flawless and beautiful. I'm not seeing any typos or corrections. The authors must have had incredible focus and a crystal clear vision about what exactly they were going to communicate (certainly from many previous drafts). It makes me think that we lost something valuable when our published words became so "cheap" by comparison.
> The formality and skill of the engrossed copy strengthened the persuasiveness of the Declaration by distancing its arguments from any individual. The document [also] helped protect the identities of the signers — the names were kept secret until 1777
This is a fascinating aside that I'd never considered before (and I did not know that the signatories were kept secret for some time). Thanks for the link.
I wonder if keeping the signatories secret was done to temporarily give the appearance of unanimity, since some congressmen refused to sign.
If it helps, these documents were not written down by the authors but by a professional scribe whose job it was to write a beautiful page, or to keep trying until it was just so.
The handwriting in historical letters, while still often beautiful, was not perfect and had errors.
It strikes me that when we say we’re “signing” a file/commit/etc. (using a key), a “seal” is probably a more appropriate analogy, since someone could steal your key just as someone could steal the seal.
The essential property of seals is that they are fragile and offer tamper evidence. Removing a seal or opening a sealed document is supposed to be destructive to the seal, the document, or both. Seals are still used for this purpose.
> Those would be seals (usually royal seals), in European usage.
Well, the European usage is to call them seals in a European or Near Eastern context. For some reason, exactly the same thing in an Asian context is often called a "chop" in European usage.
Tamper evidence is actually the only thing that cryptographic signatures provide. If either the "document" or signature is modified then verification fails.
Cryptographic signatures don't provide evidence that someone looked at the "document" in transit. For that we use a separate sort of thing called encryption and prevent the problem entirely. The two things work together to provide the equivalent of a sealed envelope or securely folded paper document.
Should this be `before certificates`? The seal didn't stop you from opening or viewing, just tried to establish authenticity and first viewing. (I realize certs don't guarantee first viewing)
There is a legend in Sweden, that during some power struggle in the 16th century, several high-ranking persons had put their seals on a document which, after a change in political tides, put them at a very real risk of losing their heads in the event now known as "the Stockholm bloodbath". One of them — the bishop Hans Brask — then cracked open his seal to reveal a note saying (in 15xx Swedish) "I'm being forced to do this". He got to keep his head, and the word "brasklapp" (literally "Brask note") now means a reservation or caveat.
I really like tally sticks[0]. Obscenely simple, but profoundly secure. You've got the species of wood, the unique grain, exact dimensions, the exact partnership between the two pieces, the human scrawling... This multi-dimesional identifying mechanism and it's little more than a couple of mundane pieces of wood with some contract etched into it.
The video Marvel_boy[0] posted details one of the conventions. In that case it's a subtractive process, so defacing the receipt in that case would be of no benefit, perhaps even disadvantageous. In other cases, such as tax records, it would only be to someone's disadvantage to destroy. Of course this all depends on the convention used to draw it up.
Speculatively:
There could simply be an ass whoopin' dished out, theft is a sin, or a threat to credit. From my understanding the vast majority of people never travelled very far, the estimate I heard was about 30mi being the known world to most folks. So having a bad reputation is a pretty good disincentive. It's also my understanding that debt, rather than barter, was the predominate mode of exchange (a la Graeber), but that would've been trusted neighbors and necessities in communal self-interest; so bad credit and the consequent marred reputation could spell disaster. I don't imagine that most documents recorded on tally sticks were Josiah giving neighbor Jebediah five carrots for future remuneration of seven; rather strange gentry arranging commercial exchanges, and the state issuing and recording taxes. I'm not an expert, though.
Tangentially related: digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have spawned a burgeoning physical-document-security industry. If you don't want your private key to leave the airgapped computer that created it, but you do want a backup, then you might manually etch, engrave, or stamp your key onto metal rectangles. Some companies are now providing kits to facilitate this tedious process. It's a little steampunk.
Even more tangentially related: if you've seen the Rick and Morty episode "Morty's Mind Blowers," do you know the name of the red container that Summer snapped open to reveal emergency recovery instructions? You also see them in old Atomic Age movies. I don't know if they've had any practical application in the last 20-30 years, but they are pretty cool and maybe useful for protecting the secrets mentioned above.
I've always been fascinated by this idea, since surely this introduces a number of other machines that have seen your private key. It is not unusual for the factory default settings on a printer to allow reprints of the last few documents, for example.
I believe they are called sealed authenticators. They would provide part of a mechanism to prove a backup code had never been accessed, but I don’t know how you would ensure a code was not used and sealed into a new case.
Thank you. That's the best lead I've gotten yet. https://www.keysure.net/ is the closest to a real product, but everything else suggests that it's only a product of Hollywood imagination.
Something not mentioned is the additional security built into the obvious wax seal.
So in order to test couriers credibility and trustworthyness to deliver wax sealed parchments, a courier would be required to collect and deliver said parchment in a controlled experiment.
So the route would be lined with spies in on the test who could report back anything untoward.
The wax seal would be laced with Atropa Belladonna[1] which when inhaled from melted wax would cause the pupils to dilate and the delivery point would be dark. So when the courier handed over the parchment a lantern would be held up to the couriers face to see if the pupils constricted in the light. If the courier had melted the wax laced with belladonna, their pupils would look like saucers and the recipient would know the wax seal had been melted & vapours inhaled. It was a measure to protect against counterfeiting wax seals.
I dont think this knowledge made it to the US, but it was very common in Europe.
Loyalty & trustworthy tests still go on today, but they have evolved somewhat with the times, but you may not even realise you have been tested!
Some years ago I had the opportunity to visit a switch control tower at a rail yard.
As with much else in the technological built landscape, what I'd not realised before that time was how much of the structure was devoted to, and determined by mechanism. Moving a switch control in the tower itself activated a relay which moved a lever arm, which through mechanical coupling moved the actual rail points.
(This is no longer always the case, but for older infrastructure, and this dated to at least the 1930s, it's quite common.)
The operater interfaces were themselves secured and sealed. The operator rather delightedly showed how the seals could be readily removed without any apparent sign of having done so....
Times, locations, and personnel left intentionally vague, though few of those involved are likely still alive.
You would think this is no longer used... I recently got married in the US and had to send proof to my home country of France. I had to request a certification ("apostille") conform with the Hague Conference treaty [1]. I paid Massachusetts $6 and they sent me the fanciest document I have ever seen, with the Great Seal of Massachusetts embossed in it and a ribbon going through the paper (I didn't take a picture sadly but it was kinda like this [2]). It all looked a bit archaic but very cool.
31 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 73.8 ms ] threadThis is a fascinating aside that I'd never considered before (and I did not know that the signatories were kept secret for some time). Thanks for the link.
I wonder if keeping the signatories secret was done to temporarily give the appearance of unanimity, since some congressmen refused to sign.
The handwriting in historical letters, while still often beautiful, was not perfect and had errors.
Electronic signatures don't have this property.
In Japan, Hanko or Inkan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(East_Asia)#Japanese_usag...
Well, the European usage is to call them seals in a European or Near Eastern context. For some reason, exactly the same thing in an Asian context is often called a "chop" in European usage.
Cryptographic signatures don't provide evidence that someone looked at the "document" in transit. For that we use a separate sort of thing called encryption and prevent the problem entirely. The two things work together to provide the equivalent of a sealed envelope or securely folded paper document.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Parliament
Speculatively:
There could simply be an ass whoopin' dished out, theft is a sin, or a threat to credit. From my understanding the vast majority of people never travelled very far, the estimate I heard was about 30mi being the known world to most folks. So having a bad reputation is a pretty good disincentive. It's also my understanding that debt, rather than barter, was the predominate mode of exchange (a la Graeber), but that would've been trusted neighbors and necessities in communal self-interest; so bad credit and the consequent marred reputation could spell disaster. I don't imagine that most documents recorded on tally sticks were Josiah giving neighbor Jebediah five carrots for future remuneration of seven; rather strange gentry arranging commercial exchanges, and the state issuing and recording taxes. I'm not an expert, though.
[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DkyahZplFo
Even more tangentially related: if you've seen the Rick and Morty episode "Morty's Mind Blowers," do you know the name of the red container that Summer snapped open to reveal emergency recovery instructions? You also see them in old Atomic Age movies. I don't know if they've had any practical application in the last 20-30 years, but they are pretty cool and maybe useful for protecting the secrets mentioned above.
So in order to test couriers credibility and trustworthyness to deliver wax sealed parchments, a courier would be required to collect and deliver said parchment in a controlled experiment. So the route would be lined with spies in on the test who could report back anything untoward. The wax seal would be laced with Atropa Belladonna[1] which when inhaled from melted wax would cause the pupils to dilate and the delivery point would be dark. So when the courier handed over the parchment a lantern would be held up to the couriers face to see if the pupils constricted in the light. If the courier had melted the wax laced with belladonna, their pupils would look like saucers and the recipient would know the wax seal had been melted & vapours inhaled. It was a measure to protect against counterfeiting wax seals.
I dont think this knowledge made it to the US, but it was very common in Europe.
Loyalty & trustworthy tests still go on today, but they have evolved somewhat with the times, but you may not even realise you have been tested!
[1] https://www.historyandwomen.com/2012/07/fatal-beauty.html#:~....
As with much else in the technological built landscape, what I'd not realised before that time was how much of the structure was devoted to, and determined by mechanism. Moving a switch control in the tower itself activated a relay which moved a lever arm, which through mechanical coupling moved the actual rail points.
(This is no longer always the case, but for older infrastructure, and this dated to at least the 1930s, it's quite common.)
The operater interfaces were themselves secured and sealed. The operator rather delightedly showed how the seals could be readily removed without any apparent sign of having done so....
Times, locations, and personnel left intentionally vague, though few of those involved are likely still alive.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostille_Convention
[2]: https://apostilleonline.com/images/portfolio/img8.jpg